The story of TV in 2025 is, by and large, positive, in that the year yielded so much incredible TV that watching it all is impossible. Hence, the utility and concurrent tyranny of the Year-End list: Itโs a wonderful viewing guide for our holiday breaks, and a reminder of everything we missed over the past 12 months.
Iโm including myself in that summation, since I meant to review one show on this list but kept kicking that flaming can down the road until its season ended. Some may question why I included โRageโ instead of, say, โMurderbot,โ and other honorable mentions listed at the end of this list. My answer is in the opening observation about the wealth of top-shelf TV and limited space and hours in a day; in any event, I assure you that these 10 selections are time well spent.
(HBO) Carmen Machi as Marga in โRageโ
10) โRage,โ i.e. โFuriaโ
โRageโ is a series of interconnected vignettes about five women: a wealthy, gun-loving artist whose husband is sleeping with their younger live-in housekeeper; the housekeeperโs mother, caring for her own dementia-ridden mother as her landlord threatens eviction; a stylish clerk pushed out of her job by subadult fashion influencers; a vegan chef hounded to ruin by an obsessed critic; and an aging adult film star.
Created, written and almost entirely directed by Spanish filmmaker Fรฉlix Sabroso, โRageโ achieves what we wish โAnd Just Like Thatโ aspired to even attempt, confronting the reality of a womanโs power surge at a time in her life when society would rather kick her to the curb.
Sabroso maximizes the visual pop and sharp humor that defines every scene, saturating frames in โsee meโ colors popping citrusy in one moment and fiery in the next, lifting the castโs audacious, extreme performances. Yet he also insists that everyone retains their humanity in the storyโs darkest moments, such as when our cast-off fashionista serenely sits on the brink of ruin and shrugs, โI…